The King's Cup-Bearer eBook

A fifth would have suggested, with some warmth, that
surely old inhabitants of the city were better judges
of its requirements than a stranger, and that it was
for the town council to propose such a scheme if they
saw the necessity for it, and not for a new-comer who
had been less than a week in Jerusalem.

These, and countless other objections, might have
been raised, had the meeting been called in our lukewarm
days.

But the Jerusalem committee did not act thus, they
did not fill Nehemiah’s way with difficulties
and his soul with discouragement. A plain bit
of work lay before him and before them; he was ready
to lead, and they were ready to follow. ‘Let
us rise and build,’ they cry. And ‘they
strengthened their hands for this good work.’

Let us take heed that we, as servants of Christ, follow
their example. Let us never be seen with the
bucket of cold water, ready to throw on the efforts
of others for good. As ’iron sharpeneth
iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.’
Let us ever be ready with the word of encouragement,
with the helpful hand, with the cheering spirit of
hope. There is work for us amongst the ruins of
God’s fair world, and the labourers are few.

Let us then rise and build, each of us in earnest,
each of us encouraging his brother, each of us looking
beyond the discouragements of earth to the Master’s
‘Well done good and faithful servant.’

CHAPTER IV.

To Every Man his Work.

Once a year, in the University of Cambridge, there
is a grand day called Commemoration Day. On that
day, in the middle of the service, in each college
chapel a list of honours is read out, a list containing
the names of all those who, in times gone by, gave
money or help to that college. The bodies of
those whose names are read have many of them crumbled
to dust long centuries ago, but their names are remembered
still, remembered for what they have done; and that
they may never be forgotten, they are publicly read
aloud, year by year, on the great Commemoration Day.

Let us now take up God’s honour list, and see
who are entered upon it. We shall find it filled
with the names of those who have been dead more than
2000 years, but whose names are not forgotten; they
stand out fair and clear in the Book of God, all are
entered on the great list of honours, and are remembered
for what they have done.

Where shall we find God’s great honour list?
It is the list of all those who responded to Nehemiah’s
appeal, and who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.
In Neh. iii. we have a list of their names, not one
is omitted. There those names have stood for
2000 years; there they will stand to the end of time.
Brave men, noble men were those Jews, who, as soon
as the scheme was laid before them, cried, ’Let
us arise and build;’ and who not only responded
by word of mouth, but who at once set to work to do
what they had promised.